Saudi Arabia: Women Start Driving Following Midnight Ban Lift

Saudi Arabian women are now allowed to drive freely after a ban was lifted a restriction on women motorists for the first time in decades.

RELATED: 
Saudi Arabia: Several Women's Rights Activists Arrested

Women reportedly began driving in Riyadh and other several other cities soon after the ban was lifted at midnight. A television presenter, Sabika al-Dosari, said the end of the ban was “a historic moment for every Saudi woman,” before driving across the border to Bahrain.

Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has made several changes to the constitution in a bid to modernize the largely conservative kingdom. The lifting of the ban eliminates Saudi women's previous dependence on private chauffeurs or male relatives and the emergence of female driving schools across multiple cities

“I always knew this day would come. But it came fast. Sudden,” a talk show host and writer, Samar Almogren, said while driving across the capital. “I feel free like a bird.”

According to the consultancy firm PricewaterhouseCoopers, some three million women in Saudi Arabia are eligible to receive licenses to begin driving by 2020. Saudi Arabia had begun issuing licenses to women earlier this month.

Prince Mohammed also lifted a ban on women attending cinemas and mixed-gender concerts, after vowing to revert Saudi Arabia to moderate Islam. The removing on the driving restriction includes the Crown Prince's plan to increase the female workforce from 22% to 30% by 2030.

“To all men I say, be gentle towards women [drivers],” popular Saudi singer Mohammed Abdu posted in an online video.